Monday, 28 January 2013

Factors to Consider While Buying Indian Traditional Fabrics- Colorfastness

Colorfastness to Washing/Rubbing/Light

Every traditional fabric has Its own list of defects, some
defects are inherent to the techniques, one has to live with them if they want
that fabric.

All fabric indigo dyed or printed traditionally rub or
bleed. It applies to Dabu and Bagru styles of printing. The dyeing is done in
indigo pits, the concentration of which is kept in check by adding lime or
Jaggery. Also every thaan has different shade of color in it. Traditionally
these are dried in the sun and weather condition affects them. Indigo fabrics also
fade, this poses a problem in storing them in stores where they can develop
prominent fold marks. Kalamkari is also better in this respect except the
designs which contains blue color which tends to rub or bleed. Ajraks are
better in this respect. The fact that these fabrics are washed many times
before the final process, make them much better as far as colorfastness to
washing, rubbing or light is concerned. Dhars have very good colorfastness to
washing or rubbing. Pigment prints are better in these respect, only difference
is made when they are printed on traditionally handwoven fabric such as
Managalgiris, where the base color often bleeds.

Ikats especially containing more than three colors are prone
to bleeding as direct or napthol colors are used. Reactive dyes cannot be used
as in the high temperature process of reactive dyes, the dyes will penetrate
inside the rubber band used to tie the yarn. However it is possible to dye with
reactive dyes warp ikats used in Andhra if the number of colors are less than
three. In Orissa where weft Ikat is used, only direct or napthol colors are
permitted, getting the colorfastness is a challenge.

For normal powerloom cotton fabrics woven in UP and Bihar,
the yarn dyeing is often done with vat colors. However for black, sulphur black
is used. It has a danger as the yarn becomes tender if the fabric is not washed
properly after weaving. It leads to tearing of the fabric. Tearing is also
observed in Patri print of Jaipur done with Aniline Black dyes, if the fabric
is stored for longer time.Luckily, most of the weavers are shifting to the
chamber dyeing, where the yarn hanks are dyed with reactive dyes and a
colorfastness of the range of 4-5 is obtainable.

Silks from Varanasi has no problems whatsoever with
drycleaning. However Silk when blended with viscose problems poses a problem
with colorfastness when piece dyed. The people in Patna, Bhagalpur and Purnia
still are using direct dyes which make the fabric vulnerable to the
colorfastness. Silk Matkas, Mugas and Ghicha do not pose any problems.

Traditional fabrics of south are dyed with reactive dyes so
colorfastness is not a problem there.